Snøhornet, Apr 9 2016

Back again, 7 years later…

I have been to Snøhornet once before – in February 2009. Back then, I skied via Ulvestadsætra and up to Snøhornet and Litlehornet. This Saturday, I was introducing this mountain to my girlfriend Anne and our friends Lena and Terje. It is not the grandest skiing mountain in the April season, but it has a fjord view that is just stunning.

We drove up to Løndalen, with plans to ski the northeast ridge. But already on the ferry from Volda, we could see that this could be a challenge – due to cornices. Moreover, my dog Karma was with us and I didn’t fancy taking a dog up a narrow ridge with cornices.

Snøhornet seen from the ferry

So plan B was to aim for the lowest point between the main summit and Bekarshornet (the left top on the above picture). Arriving at Lauvstad, we drove up to Løndalen and parked at the entrance of the toll road to Ulvestadsætra – which was closed. From here, it seemed that we would have to carry the skies for approx. 1km before we could put them on.

Heading out on the toll road to Ulvestadsætra

The snow was perfect for skiing. A hard crust, where the sun had melted 1cm on top. It doesn’t get any better than that. And the weather was just gorgeous. We were smiling all the way up to the summit.

Plan B is in effect. We’re aiming for the saddle left of the summit – not seen here

First, we had to cross the left ridge seen on the above picture. Then we got the saddle into view and it was difficult to judge whether the ascent would be easy or difficult.

The saddle comes into view

The challenge was that with the thin layer of fresh snow on top of the hard snow, it was difficult to get a grip. Ref. the above picture, we wanted to ascend the hill where the sun is shining on the snow, but it turned out to be impossible. The ascent to the saddle would have been a no-brainer with more snow, but today we had to fight for each step of the way.

The others – on their way up to the saddle. Snøhornet in the background

Being the first one up to the saddle, I took a detour up to the Bekarshornet cairn. I later discovered that the cairn was not the high point, but Bekarshornet is quite an insignificant top and the “mishap” didn’t matter much.

As seen on the above picture, the summit of Snøhornet had little snow so we had to actively look for a route which allowed us to ski all the way up to the summit.

On top of Snøhornet

We discussed descending via Ulvestadsætra, but ended up descending the same way we came. Due to clouds, the light was a bit flat and it would be easier to ski along our tracks than to ski down a hillside where we couldn’t see the contours in the terrain.

View down the ridge we originally planned on ascending

The descent was just great. The snow was as good as it can get, and the light got significantly better after skiing down the first hillside. We all enjoyed this trip very much, and I even think Karma did too, even if she had a fair amount of running to do – on the way down…